The Balers volleyball team lost 21-25, 24-26, 29-27, 7-25 to
visiting Salinas Tuesday night.
San Benito (18-17, 5-4 TCAL) will wrap up its season Wednesday
night at Notre Dame.
The Balers volleyball team lost 21-25, 24-26, 29-27, 7-25 to visiting Salinas Tuesday night.
San Benito (18-17, 5-4 TCAL) will wrap up its season Wednesday night at Notre Dame.
Both Notre Dame and Salinas are sitting on top of the league this season with 8-1 records.
“We match up pretty well,” said Baler coach Chuck Schallhorn. “If we pass well and serve aggressively and strong, we can beat Notre Dame. It is their senior night, so they may be a little distracted like we were. We always expect a good match.”
The only way the Balers could have overtaken the Cowboys in the standings was to win the final two games and have Salinas lose its final two games.
But the Balers still have a good chance for an at-large berth in the Central Coast Section playoffs because of the points they have accumulated.
Even if San Benito loses to Notre Dame on Wednesday, it will still finish with both a .500 record in league and also overall.
A .500 record in either is needed to make the Central Coast Section playoffs.
“The playoff system is a lot more complicated than it was in Indiana,” Schallhorn said. “But what I have seen we shouldn’t have any trouble getting in.”
The CCS seeding meeting is Saturday afternoon.
The Balers, who were coming into the game on a six-game winning streak, stayed with the Cowboys for three games, giving them a scare.
But the team wasn’t able to get anything going in the fourth game.
“We were coming in with confidence and have been playing pretty good volleyball,” Schallhorn said. “We were expecting a dog fight.”
Even after talking to his team the day after, Schallhorn couldn’t put a finger on what went wrong in the final.
“Every once in awhile, you have player who goes into a mental funk,” Schallhorn said. “But the entire team went into a funk. We tensed up, stopped communicating and made a whole bunch of mental errors.”
Leslie Schipper and Mallorie Wilson both had 11 kills for the Balers. Wilson had a strong game at the net with four solo blocks and four assist blocks.
Melissa Moore had kills and a pair of solo and a pair of assist blocks. Moore also had 31 digs for the Balers.
“She had so many more digs than any one else,” Schallhorn said. “Those three rotations need to pick up the block when she is in back row. We didn’t have problems putting the ball down except in the last game.”
Junior setter Stephanie Mauro had 17 assists.
